The Amazing Race 10: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Episode 8: Mine

I want to start this week with a topic that seems to be on a lot of minds – the rumored upcoming “All-Star” edition of The Amazing Race. I don’t want to post the rumored contestant list, because it’s far from official and I don’t want to perpetuate it if it’s wrong (and I bet if you found this article you can find the list), but I have to tell you, I hope to God it’s not.

It’s as if I went through the seasons and picked out my least favorite, most obnoxious, most grating, most irritating, least deserving of another shot teams and put them all on this list. Examples? How about Colin & friggin Christie, two people I would boot-scoot through broken glass to avoid? Or Charla & Mirna? What about Ray & Deana? Have we not gotten our quotient of obnoxious alpha males yet that we have to put them all together?

There are only a couple of teams I can even say I liked (Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce stand out) but I don’t care to see them again. Where are the clowns? Where is the endearing older couple – take your pick? Or the NICE couples like Jon & Kelly? What about any of the best friend teams? Basically, where are the teams that didn’t annoy the unholy piss out of everyone?

Sorry, folks, but if you enjoy this column, you should hope this doesn’t come to pass. If this rumored lineup shows up on The Amazing Race, then I’ll be watching something else.

On a lighter note, I mentioned last week that I didn’t even know where Mauritius is, much less how to pronounce it. Well, a great reader emailed in with a neat bit of info about Mauritius – it was the home of the now-extinct dodo bird. I love little bits of trivia like this, so everyone feel free to keep ‘em coming if you have any that pertain to the race.

I’m having trouble coming up with stuff to write about this week. When I asked my fiancée for ideas, all she could offer was, “it was lame.” Unfortunately, I had to agree.

The Good:

What’s Mine is Mine: Well, Kentucky is gone, and I can’t say I’m upset about it. Yes, I liked them a lot and wanted them to do well (and haven’t soured on them quite as much as some others have), but the simple fact is, it was time for them to go. Actually, it was past time for them to go, as they probably should have gone three weeks ago.

The thing is, you can be my favorite team on the Race – and Kentucky was still one of my favorites, much as they grated – but that’s only half the battle. It IS still a race, contrary to how it looks sometimes this season. You have to actually race well. It’s why Chip & Kim are still my favorites ever, because they did well most of the time, and won, while stopping to enjoy the scenery.

The Bad:

Roadbuh-lock… Duh-umb: After a monster start of climbing up sheer rock faces and boating around marketplaces, the challenges have taken a rather pathetic turn the last couple of weeks. I know they can’t all be winners, but one would think they’d be a little more creative than first-grade scrapbooking! Moving mattresses that weren’t even real mattresses? Come on. I get the whole idea was to navigate the streets with these huge burdens, but it just struck me as lame.

Free pass on the eating Fast Forward, though. Those never look easy.

The Ugly:

There She is, Miss Hypocritical: I like the Beauty Queens, I really do, and I’m thrilled that they’re defying the odds and coming in first, forget just staying in the game. But I sincerely hope that their “how dare they think of us as pretty faces even though we are” routine with the Cho Brothers was a joke, because I wanted to throw something at the television. It’s just like Charla & Mirna, or Sarah & Peter – if you use your advantage to benefit you, you’re not allowed to complain when people see you as just blonde beauty queens.

Here’s another one – they steal someone else’s car (which *I* thought was against the rules, but who knows) because they didn’t want to ride in their own car, which they smashed up last episode. That’s right, they screwed up, and they let someone else suffer for it. Typical spoiled brat behavior, if you ask me, done by people who get whatever they want all the time and always get away with it with a quivering lip and a tear or two.

What’s even more pathetic is that they KNEW that they were ditching the car at the airport at the next stop! The only reason they did it, just like with the ticket counter last episode, is to be brats. It’s funny occasionally, but repeatedly behaving the same way is a pattern.

Mike DeGeorge is an Accountant from St. Louis and is also Associate Editor for RealityNewsOnline. You can reach Mike at rno.mike@gmail.com.

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